laughing and playing in flowers
by singing like blue
Summary: because everything is measured by the hole it leaves behind


**This was a prompt for Caesar's Palace forum. **

_When the world gets too heavy,_

_Put it on my back,_

_I'll be your levy,_

_You are taking me apart like bad glue,_

_On a get well card..._

~Always, by Panic! At The Disco

"Please don't close your eyes," Katniss felt like saying, her eyes holding in the tears that she didn't want to show Rue. But she knew, everyone closed their eyes eventually. They closed them to the world they lived in, what it had turned into, what had it become. Was it nice in the beginning? Did people spend their days laughing, playing in flowers?

Did everyone just drift off to a world where they would laugh and play in flowers? Did everyone eventually just close their eyes? Would everyone leave a hole that couldn't be healed, how ever hard anyone would try? Even the medicines of the Capitol couldn't heal the hole Rue would leave in Katniss's heart forever. Rue gave that hole unknowingly and even if she knew about it, would she take it away? Could she?

Instead of pouring out her heart, Katniss sang. She sang to a world without the Hunger Games, where Rue would live peacefully with all the mockingjays in the meadow. Her father wouldn't be out of Katniss's reach. Her mother would be happy and Prim would just be... ecstatic. Everyday, Prim would show emotions of happiness and joy, not of sadness and depression.

Katniss wouldn't be in this nightmare. She would be back home, in District 12, or maybe she would even live in the woods. She found the woods around District 12 to be the most beautiful thing she has ever known, much more than a certain person, or the Capitol's designs, clothing or otherwise.

She sang Deep In The Meadow, and as Rue's eyes started fluttering. Katniss's eyes became a northern downpour, and she softly and quietly sang the last words. _Here is the place where I love you. _In moments she believes that what she sang isn't forced, it's true and believable. And most of all, it's beautiful.

_Here's the place where I love you..._

As Rue's eyes shut closed, a hole forces it's way through Katniss's heart. Rue's small heart stops beating and Katniss loses it, her downpour becoming like hail on Rue's unmoving chest, little droplets becoming puddles even in the waterproof jacket. Rue's cannon goes off, and that makes Katniss sob even more. She clutches the fabric of the jacket in her hands, using it as comfort in the ever dying world.

_Playing in flowers..._

Katniss reminds herself of that. She reminds herself that the world will go on and Rue will laugh and play in flowers. It would be a fair tribute to just let her wake up in the flowers when the world ends. She looks around, there's a small patch of flowers nearby. Even in the arena where there's only death and destruction, there can be light and love as well. She lets herself go from where Rue's body lies, resting it in a patch of grass that isn't tinted with her own blood.

Picking the flowers slowly, she imagines Rue, in a white dress, and purple and red flowers. She picks the flowers, taking huge stalks at a time, rubbing her eyes. She continues this until her hands can hold no more, and then she walks slowly over to Rue's sleeping body, just letting herself imagine that she's actually sleeping, her chest is actually moving, and she's just dreaming. Dreaming of her family. Dreaming of going home.

She first places the flowers around the wounds in Rue's body, making her look pleasant and inviting, not like someone who got into a fight. She looked more like a normal girl than a tribute, and Katniss prided herself on making her look that way. She then made a bed of flowers, and carefully lifted and placed Rue on it. She spent time making a wreath of flowers in Rues hair, and then she looked like, instead of being stabbed by a spear, she had actually drowned in flowers.

She stood up and looked down at Rue, her eyes still making a steady downpour. She closed them and put three of her fingers to her lips, index, middle and ring. She then pressed it out to Rue, and then to the sky, where hopefully all of District 11 were looking. Thank you for your tribute. Thank you for Rue.

In District 11, the whole District then rose their three fingers to their lips as well. They then put them to the sky. They knew what they had to do. Rue had to laugh and play in flowers.

They fought until the sun went down, and well into the night. It was quick, and the revolt didn't last long. But they knew what they had to do.

Because if everything is measured by the hole it leaves behind, then the hole Rue had given them had made them stronger.

_Your freedom comes naturally..._

~Bliss by Muse


End file.
